I've said before that I had issues with BSG's end. I like the personal journey but thought the overall message was lost with where and when it ended. The ending seems to invalidate everything up to that point and I found it trite and sugar-y. It's that reason I have no desire to watch Caprica.

And my two cents, Newhart, best ending ever.

 I think Quantum Leap had a great finale, especially given the circumstances surrounding it.  Too many shows get the no-notice cancellation, but seldom do they pull off as solid a finale as QL did.  A lot of shows that know the end is coming can't even pull off such an effective final episode.

 MASH should definitely have been #1.  MASH redefined what sitcoms could do.  The show still holds up after all these years.  Heck you can still find it playing any day of the week.  The Fugitive was good, but it didn't have a fraction of the culture impact of MASH.  

I thought DS9 had a stronger ending than TNG but that might be related to my general dislike of time travel and its overuse during the last couple of seasons of TNG (and all of Voyage and Enterprise).  

And to echo what others have said, B5 had a great closing episode.  And I thought Buffy's finale was far stronger than Angel's.  It almost single handily redeemed the mess that seasons six and seven made of the show and the characters.

If they hadn't tried to reboot it this year i would have added last years finale for Scrubs.  Absolutely brilliant.  JD's final walk down the corridor, seeing all the people who touched his life for the entire series.  Peter Gabriel's cover of Book of Love playing over the film of a possible future.  It captured everything that made Scrubs work, the humor, the poignancy.  A great ending.  

Other than that, a pretty good list.  

A 70's show that never got the chance to do a "finale" was the show my avatar is based on, Space:1999. I wish someone would "re-imagine" it with the same zeal as BSG! But, since the science was a little hokey, it may not be possible today. But, I can dream!

I agree NEWHART is and most likely will always best the best.Nobody saw it coming

I thought season 6 and 7 of Buffy were pretty good.  I know some people didn't care for it, but I really enjoyed them.

EagleManiac, the science was a LITTLE hokey?  Try nonexistant.  But I too remember the show with love.  I'd love to see it again.

jaw--Sapranos and Shield ended as a thought experiment....ala "Lady Or The Tiger."  Leaving up to the audience to figure out what happens after the screen goes black.  Maybe the Shield wasn't as in your face as Sapranos was, it still left you hanging.  They did that by having Vic take the gun out of his drawer and walk away from his desk with a determined look on his face...fade to black.  Now if they wouldn't have done that and just left him there sitting at his desk looking miserable (which is what I would have done) no problem but they crossed that line and left it up to the audience.  The rest fof the final episode was fantastic but the very end of it is where I make the comparison.  

Karas1, ok, you got me there. But, Space:1999 DID something for me. I guess it was that dream of living on the moon, which was so prevalent back in the mid-70's, that Space:1999 showed what might be possible. And I hate to say it, but one place that the show DID have great science were The Eagles. Fantastic design, and very plausable, even today. Those ships seemed so much more realistic, and more in tune with what we saw in 2001: ASO, that they had an air of believability to them that most TV shows never achieved.....including just about every show/movie we have seen since. There was a poll taken of Sci-Fi writers, fans, and scientist who follow Sci-Fi about what they would pick as a probable near-future space ship would be like, and to pick one from a movie or TV show, and with the exception of the Space Shuttle ship from 2001, the Eagles were the most widely picked craft from fiction. I have 3 models of them on display in my home. I have an original Dinky Toys Die Cast "green" Eagle Transporter and also the "white" freighter Eagle. I also have a Special Edition Eagle Die Cast that is a foot long and very detailed! And, of course, I have the entire series on DVD in the complete Boxed Set. Gosh I LOVE this show!! Bet you'd have never guessed that, huh? :-)

 EagleManiac:  Dead on about the Eagle, one of the coolest spaceship designs ever.  The actual design and layout of Moonbase Alpha was pretty impressive.  The designers put together a fairly cohesive and well thought out system.  

The whole Moon going out of orbit and flying out into space was, as stated, hokey at best.  But the mechanics of Alpha and it's equipment were fairly well done (which is normal for Anderson show).